Flashfiction
by UKHoneyB
Summary: General short ramblings from all our favorite characters.
1. Steel Sky

**Steel Sky**

There is nothing which compares to the pure adrenaline and exhilaration which comes from jumping out of a plane at 3500 feet and hurtling towards the earth. Of course, for some people simply looking out of the plane door would be enough of an adrenaline rush; not so true for self-proclaimed extreme sports fanatic Josh McGrath.

Jumping out of the door, board strapped to his feet, it's the closest he could ever get to real flying. In the sky, where his only companion was a video camera filming the stunts he was pulling, Josh felt free. There was no hassle from his teachers, who thought being an extreme sports star was just a phase he was going through, albeit a late teenage phase.

Quickly approaching eighteen years old, and his first year of university, his excuses were fast disappearing, although the complaints tended to fall on deaf ears more often than not. Jefferson was always too busy at work to really listen to anything his son was doing.

Snapping back to reality, Josh realized that he was getting close to the ground, so he settled for one last stunt before releasing his parachute and floating down to the ground. Back to reality.

Landing on the ground, Josh immediately scanned his surroundings for a score board, trying to see where his jump had placed him.

First place.

Not bad.


	2. Lion's Dance

**Lion's Dance**

Kat smiled to herself as she executed a spinning kick, nearly knocking the punching bag off its hook. It had been too long since she was last able to fully test her body like this, four years too long.

She missed the feeling of her muscles being stretched to and beyond their previous limits, missed the feeling of total control she had while exercising. In life, she just tended to float along with everyone else, not willing to be dragged along all the way but not fighting the flow either. If something happened and she didn't like how the event was unfolding, she found a way to change it.

However, there were some things she couldn't change, no matter how hard she tried. She could still be considered a criminal; although once she was eighteen she had asked that her juvenile records be sealed, she still held a criminal record.

The ironic thing was that the one item in her life which she detested had actually led her to N-Tek, in a way. If she hadn't have joined Roxanne's gang, while she might have gone on to college, the job she would have received wouldn't have been even half as exciting as being at N-Tek was.

Some days she cursed Roxanne's gang for what had happened to other, other days she was able to accept that while she might have had a dark past, without it she wouldn't be where she was now.


	3. Second Fiddle

**Second Fiddle**

Before Josh became an extreme sports star, the three of them were on fairly even ground. The three musketeers, that's what Laura had dubbed them, although Pete had thought that she'd been watching the movie way too often.

They used to be three pretty normal teenagers, until Josh turned into an extreme sports star. Although he always managed to make time for college, his friends and sports, Pete began to feel that the 'friends' portion of Josh's life was becoming diminished in favor of sports.

Regardless of whatever Pete and Laura had planned; a trip to the local ice rink, visiting the local air show, just hanging around the college campus, something always happened and Josh had to rush off, leaving them with nothing more than a hurried apology.

It got worse after he got a job at N-Tek; then he was forever rushing out of college classes along with meetings with friends, always promising to make it up to them at some later date.

Once Pete had been clued into the workings of N-Tek, he had to admit that life was a little easier knowing that Josh was just going on another save-the-world mission instead of dumping his friends for no reason, or worse, going out on a date with Rachel every time he disappeared. A pity that news came too late for Laura.


	4. What If?

**What If...**

Jeff sighed as he walked around his desk, picking up the photo he had on his desk of him and Josh at a baseball game. That had happened ten years ago, although to Jeff it seemed much longer. Maybe it was because he had become Josh's guardian when Josh was an uncontrollable four-year-old, or maybe it was because of all the ruckus over Josh's extreme sports addiction, but it seemed to have aged Jeff a lot more than ten years.

Jeff was just glad that Josh had agreed to go to college; if he'd refused and tried to make a living out of extreme sports, Jeff would have had a heart attack. A real one. Of course, that did leave Jeff wondering if Josh would have encountered Psycho that night if he had been making a living out of extreme sports or not. Whether Josh would have become Max Steel or not, or whether Josh would be somewhere in the Alps right now, competing in a skiing event, safety be damned.

The intercom on Jeff's desk buzzed, and his secretary's voice flowed through the speaker. "Mr. Smith, Josh is here. Shall I let him in?"

"Yes, go ahead."

Jeff looked at the picture once more and smiled. What would have happened if some past event had never happened? No one knew. What will occur in the future? Future be damned, Jeff was going to enjoy every day as it came.

After all, as a spy, you never know when you're going to die.


	5. Chess

**Chess**

It's like a war. The black pieces and the white marching across the battlefield to engage in fights, one side only winning when they managed to corner the opposing side's king. How it captured the interest of two people of opposing sides will remain a curiosity.

One side, the white, just, loyal and 'good' side used it as an opportunity to relax after missions, a much calmer way than that of his teammates. While they preferred the high-flying and risk-taking involved in extreme sports, he preferred to sit in front of a computer, matching his wits against it in a battle of logic and patience.

The other, the black, conniving, deceitful and 'evil' side preferred to use it as a training exercise in deploying troops, testing out new pathways and configurations in order to create a victory for his side. However, for him, there was always one unknown which was always present in the equation and which could never be worked out.

Max Steel.

Those two words, one person, linked together the two opposing forces, one determined to keep him safe, the other preoccupied with capturing, studying and killing him. Whichever side won the battle depended on a roll of the die, the turning of a card, the movement of a single pawn.


	6. Invisible

**Invisible**

Always hiding in the background, never noticed. Protected by glass and wood and steel in her office, no longer free to actively work on missions.

Sure, she had put in a letter to be promoted after Mairot was found to be a traitor, but Rachel was beginning to regret it. She never knew that being a mission coordinator could be so…boring.

Was it the fact that she was stuck behind a desk so boring? Or was it because she no longer worked with a brown-haired, blue eyed, adrenaline-addicted nineteen year old agent?

She had to admit it; most agent in N-Tek managed to find themselves in a life-or-death situation at some point, but Max seemed to make it a habit. Regardless of where he was, or who he was up against, his missions nearly always involved something exploding and the now-obligatory race for their lives.

Truth be told, she missed it. She kept a close eye on any missions Max went on, acting like a second Jefferson Smith to any injuries he sustained or anything like the _Joshua_ incident.

What exactly was she to him? A friend, a work colleague, his boss? Certainly not anything she hoped he saw her as. Just his boss, sitting around in a too-small office, reading his mission reports and trying to imagine herself in those situations with him. She felt every injury he sustained, winced every time he came close to death.

He never did though; he always found some way to survive, to carry on joking, laughing with his friends.

While she stayed in her office, invisible to him.


	7. Parenthood

**Parenthood**

Jefferson opened the door to his son's bedroom, seeing a blond head just barely poking out from underneath the covers. Josh's room was as messy as it ever was, despite the fact that he'd "cleaned" it only yesterday. Jefferson had the inkling that, in Josh's mind, "cleaning" meant "moving stuff from one place to another so that it _looks_ tidy". A skateboard was lying hap-hazardly over Josh's new games console, three of the wheels sticking up in the air while the fourth was perched awkwardly on the game controller. Jefferson smiled ruefully as he closed the door, mentally making a note to get someone in to clean Josh's room.

---------------

Josh looked in on his daughter, checking that she was all right. Okay, in reality he was checking that a certain metal-faced maniac hadn't kidnapped her sometime between 9:49PM and 10:04PM and that he didn't have to go chasing Psycho all over the world in an attempt to get his daughter back. Not that he would just sit back and do nothing, but Josh didn't think he'd be able to trust his judgment if his daughter _was_ kidnapped. Being a spy on its own was frantic enough.

Josh smiled as he spotted his daughter's Biology homework lying on her desk, the textbook lying next to it. It was finished, Josh knew that, but he also knew that his daughter had a hard time getting up in the morning, and if she wasn't careful she'd end up tearing her homework in half while trying to stuff it into her bag.

"Time to go save the world," Josh said to himself as he closed the door.


	8. Brown and Blue

**Brown and Blue**

How deep does that split run? The split which divides him in half…or is it the glue which holds together two people? Some days it seems like the former, others it seems like the latter and very occasionally…they seemed like two different people.

Maybe they were two different people. Maybe it was intentional that, instead of being born separately, to a Jim and Molly McGrath and a Mr. and Mrs. Steel, first names unknown, Max Steel was born out of an accident when Josh was nineteen.

If they had been two different people, what would have happened? Would they have met up in Elementary School, Middle School, High School, or maybe not until College where they might have been roommates.

Would they have led different lives, if they didn't meet, Josh continuing to work part-time at N-Tek, not quite achieving the CEO position, mainly due to him not knowing about the real N-Tek, Max going on to become a world-famous extreme sports star, following in the footsteps of such people as Tony Hawk, Matt Hoffman and Jeremy McGrath.

Maybe Max would be drawn to N-Tek, looking for a career as perhaps an equipment tester, maybe asked by N-Tek to be his sponsor, his only requirements being to use N-Tek only equipment and to show up for publicity events.

Maybe Josh would meet Max then.

Maybe Josh would still get involved in the accident with the nanoprobes.

Maybe Max would be there with him.

Maybe N-Tek would have gained two super-powered agents that night, instead of one.

Maybe…

**A/N:** You might be wanting to keep an eye out for this, as it might, just might, be a story I'm going to do in full sometime soon ;)


	9. Mirage

**Mirage**

Watch my eyes,

The only thing you'll notice,

The only thing that'll never change.

I'll keep on lying, cheating, deceiving,

How else am I supposed to earn my way?

Distracting you with the faces of those you trust

And then finishing with a stab to the back.

Whom do you really trust?

Who do you depend on?

Tell me their names

'Cause I'll be watching

When I use them to betray you.

Fluid as water

Devious as a snake

Can you really believe

A mirage you can't touch?


	10. Mimicry

**Mimicry**

Ella Dragoshi, a second-generation Chinese, had the ability to mimic anyone.

At a snap, she could change from copying her friend's accent to sounding exactly like her mother. As she grew, her mimicry changed from just imitating accents and speech patterns, to accurately copying actions her friends did.

On more than on occasion, she found herself walking on her toes when she got nervous, running a hand through her hair when she was embarrassed, or stuttering when enraged, even though she had never stuttered before.

She'd fold down the corners of a page when she wanted to quit reading, even though she could remember the page number, touch items on her school desk in a certain order, or refuse to eat foods if they weren't in a certain order.

Her parents worried about a mental disorder, with tens of doctor's visits, all showing nothing but her having an abnormal ability to copy other people, so it was ignored.

As she became an adult, it grew into more of a problem. When taking to a colleague she'd start biting her pencil or turning her mug twice before drinking from it. Her colleagues thought she was making fun of their actions, but her boss felt she was mocking him. As a result, she was fired.

Then she met Dread.

And Dragonelle was born.


	11. Attraction

**Attraction**

If asked, she wouldn't have been able to identify when she started liking him, you know, _liking_ him. It wasn't like it was absent one day, there the next: it crept up on her, slowly, until she admitted to herself that, yes, she _liked_ him.

She could, however, pinpoint when she started loving him. Queensland in Australia, in the middle of their rainforest, causing her to lament on the troubles rainforests always seem to give them. The terrorists had been armed with more conventional guns and bullets rather than lasers and shock-sticks, and one bullet had hit him in the thigh.

She managed to patch him up, using half her shirt, and commenting that he wasn't to make any snide jokes or try to catch an eyeful, or she'd give him something worse than a bullet wound to worry about.

As she sat and he lay, waiting for help, she found herself berating herself, wishing that she had pushed him out of the way and the bullet hit her instead, that she would be the one lying on the ground, slowly bleeding, not him, and she realised that she loved him.

She, who had never depended on anyone in her life, was now in love with her co-worker. She'd gotten through her life on her own, and now she was wishing she was bleeding to death so that she wouldn't see the person she loved dying in front of her.

She would so catch hell from Steel about this when she and Berto got back.


	12. Adrenaline

A/N: Despite the title of this flashfic, it's not a Max/Kat story :p Funny enough, this is my third Josh/Max flashfic, he just seems to be extremely easy to write for. A bonus if you can guess where the last two lines come from.

**Adrenaline**

He loved it. Adrenaline. Nature's drug. His drug.

He once overheard some science about adrenaline, that some people had a tolerance for it. Some could just stand on the edge of a cliff and get their adrenaline that way. Himself?

He had to leap off that cliff, he needed to jump out of that place, he needed to get his adrenaline rush from doing things which scared other people.

Well, that was a lie: he got it another way.

Chasing down terrorists who were moments away from achieving their goals, seconds away from creating a nightmare world in their vision, even sometimes a minute or so after they'd finished their plans and were celebrating.

Watching a bomb tick down the seconds, minutes, looking at the wires and knowing that, by cutting the wrong one, he'd die in an instant, die because of his failure.

Diving down underneath the sea's surface, calculating the point of no return trying to save someone, or recover a crucial element and thus foil the terrorists' plans. Debating whether to press on and risk drowning, or to turn back and potentially endanger the planet.

Adrenaline.

Don't leave home without it.


	13. Feelings

**Feelings**

Had it really been a year? More specifically, a year, three days and seven hours? He pondered to himself that he had been saying the days had been longer without her, and yet here he was, a year later, wondering where all the time went.  
He'd been at N-Tek for about two years when he was assigned a new partner: his old one was moving on to a different job, effectively retiring from the spy business, and there was, in Mairot's own words "a bright young woman who matches up with you perfectly".  
Perhaps more perfectly than they had thought.  
Within a couple of months they were tip-toeing around each other: she having come straight in to N-Tek from a British college, and he having been working at NASA for the better part of four years, where relationships were frowned upon. As a result, neither of them were quite sure of the rules of the dating game, and both made a few errors.  
Rachel was the one to break the silence first, admitting to Jefferson Smith about her relationship with Jake, and while was not given explicit approval, it was made clear that any problems they encountered while pursuing the relationship was theirs to deal with.  
It had all worked out well until Max Steel arrived on the scene, and Jake found himself listening to a phone call from Rachel, telling him that it was over. Ever since then, he'd been doubting himself, second-guessing everything he did, wondering if they were drifting apart even before Max had arrived.  
Even a year later, he still had feelings for Rachel that would not go away.


	14. Trust

**Trust**

To anyone who wasn't an N-Tek agent, the word "partner" conjured up images of a romantic relationship. That, or it would click as a spy term for those who watched such shows as _Alias_, _Spooks_ or possibly any James Bond movies. As a result, many of the N-Tek agents had to catch themselves before accidentally calling their partners such. To some agents, though, the word 'partner' had a different meaning.  
To them, it meant confidence, hope, trust. Quite probably one of the very few people who'd know about their true life, not just someone who knew what went on between 5PM and 9AM (if they kept to a normal work schedule). To them, having a partner was someone who you could trust with their life, more often than not literally.  
A partner was someone who knew your every move, who could distinguish between the body language meaning 'worry' and 'anxiety', who could be counted on in an emergency. One person had referred to it as something akin to the psychic bond twins are said to have, and he wasn't far wrong.  
Both partners could be blindfolded and wear headphones relaying sounds in stereo to allow them to identify where a target would be, and they'd both move in sync, attacking with perfect harmony and no faults.  
It was a bond deeper than that of friends, family, even love, and was extremely difficult to come by, yet people at N-Tek were displaying it nearly every single day without fault.  
Trust like that was unimaginable to the average person.


	15. Psycho

**Psycho***

Psychopath – Antisocial disorder, usually manifests in aggression, perversion, criminal or amoral behaviour. Has no empathy or remorse.

Psychotic – A person affected by psychosis

Psychosis – Mental disorder, usually severe, may or may not have organic damage. Characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality. Causes deterioration of normal social functions.

Psychogenic – Mind origin, or in mental/emotional processes. Has a psychological rather than physiological origin.

Psychomotor – Relating to movement/muscular activity. Associated with mental processes/effects.

He had been dubbed Psycho, but why? Was he antisocial with no empathy or remorse (that sounded most likely), or was he named that because he never seemed to be in contact with the real world for very long (…how about no?)?

He knew he didn't have muscular problems, if one ignored the metallic arm and face, which was more to do with the fact that he lost his arm early in life, and a brown-haired woman with blue bangs damaged his face in an 'accidental' explosion.

More to the point: why did he even care about the origin of his name?


	16. Old Times

**Old Times**

Looking back, it wasn't such a bad era. The decade would encompass the feminism and Gay Rights movements, oversee the energy crisis, computers becoming more mainstream. Rock and punk rock would also get starts in that decade.

It would also be the decade in which the Munich Olympics were overshadowed by the kidnapping and death of eleven Israeli athletes. Eleven years later, Molly McGrath would drown in the Mediterranean Sea, her death followed by that of her husband, Jim McGrath, who would die while on a mission two years later.

Marco Nathanson disappeared not long after Jim's death, and Josh, son of Jim and Molly, would become an orphan, soon to be adopted by Jim's best friend, Jefferson Smith.

However, that was all before them: Jim and Jeff would graduate college and scour places for work, finding themselves employed by a new sports company calling itself N-Tek, under the eyes of Nathanson.

Molly would finish a degree in journalism towards the latter half of the decade, getting a job with a local paper and meeting Jim by chance when sent to interview a few people who worked at N-Tek.

Jim and Molly would quickly form a relationship and get married at the end of the decade. Jim would stay at his position as an agent/operative while Jeff climbed the ranks in N-Tek, becoming lead agent before being groomed to be the next mission co-ordinator, putting him as Jim's boss.

Yet, as Jim celebrated his seventeenth birthday on the first day of the summer holidays at the beginning of the 1970s, none had any idea what would become of their lives in the next decade.


End file.
